Justice Minister Michael Wills has revealed how his father fled Nazi-occupied Vienna and its impact on his role in the government’s Bill of Rights and Responsibilities.

Mr Wills, who this week launched a report composed of Jewish groups’ responses to the bill, said: “Human beings don’t always learn from the past and that’s why this debate and this Jewish contribution is so important.”

A $30,000 Hebrew bible which was stolen from a library in Vienna during Kristallnacht has been returned to Austria.

It was due to be auctioned by the New York-based Kestenbaum & Company, which is owned by former Londoner Daniel Kestanbaum.

The black, leather-bound bible, which was printed in 1516 in Venice, vanished 71 years ago.
It had been donated to the library of the Jewish community of Vienna in 1908, before being looted by the Nazis on November 9, 1938.

The highest court in France has for the first time recognised the state’s responsibility in the deportation of tens of thousands of Jews during the Nazi era. The Council of State said that the collaborationist Vichy regime had “allowed or facilitated the deportation from France of victims of antisemitism” and called for the “formal admission of the state’s responsibility”.

The daughter of a renowned anthropologist has been reunited with a collection of his oil paintings which had been lost for almost 70 years.

Leonhard Adam painted the five panels of roses and poppies in 1940 while interned on the Isle of Man. He came to Britain after fleeing Nazi Germany, but was deported to Australia on the infamous Dunera in 1940.

The Dunera left Liverpool for Australia in July 1940, carrying 2,450 men, mostly German Jews Britain had deemed to be "enemy aliens".

The Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum has begun building a database of the tens of thousands of Jews who sought sanctuary in the Chinese city
after fleeing the Nazis in the 1930s. Leading the project is Uri Gutman, Israel’s consul-general in Shanghai, who described it as “a historical mission”.